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Food and crime, two constants through human culture. Get ready for some curious treats.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

(00:36):
It was Christmas time, nineteen twenty seven, and the largest
manhunt Texas had ever seen was underway. A posse of
one hundred men was scouring the lone Star state. Their
target had many aliases, Chris Kringle, Old Saint Nick, even
Papa Noel. But no matter what name he went by,
the truth was the same. Santa Claus had robbed a bank.

(00:57):
Just a few weeks earlier. Marshall Ratliffe took his first
breath of free air after two long years. He had
been imprisoned for bank robbery in a tiny central Texas
town called Valera, but he walked free after the governor
granted him a pardon. Immediately he began to plot his
next heist. It was a particularly dangerous time for bank
robbers in Texas. Multiple banks were being robbed every day,

(01:20):
and the Texas Bankers Association put up a bounty of
five thousand dollars for anyone who killed a would be thief.
Today that would be the equivalent of about eighty five thousand,
so law men and vigilantes alike were eager to get
their payout. Marshall knew to get away clean he needed
the right team and the right approach, and so he
staked out the First National Bank of Cisco, Texas to

(01:42):
make a plan. He recruited two other ex cons, Henry
Helms and Robert Hill, and when their original safecracker fell ill,
they added Louis Davis, Henry's relative, to the team. And
since Marshall himself was known to people in Cisco, he
decided the best way to pull off the heist would
be in disguise. Luckily for him, the woman running the
boarding house he lived in had just the thing, a

(02:04):
homemade Santa Claus suit complete with a beard. The plan
was simple. Drop Marshall in full Santa get up in
town close to the bank, when they would park their
getaway car in the alley out back. Henry, Robert and
Louis would then follow Marshall into the bank. They would
steal the cash and exit through a side door to
drive off into the sunset. It was nearly full proof.

(02:26):
On December twenty third of nineteen twenty seven, the townspeople
of Cisco didn't find anything suspicious about a man in
a Santa suit strolling into the bank. In fact, on
his journey into First National, Marshall was stopped by several
children giving him their Christmas wish lists. Inside the bank, however,
was a totally different story. The second that Marshall and

(02:46):
his three accomplices entered the building, they pulled out their
pistols and told the workers and patrons inside to put
their hands up. Marshall pulled out a bag and told
the tellers to begin filling it. In the chaos, however,
the gang lost sight of one bank customer and her
young daughter. The two slipped into a back office and
out a side door, and then immediately ran into the

(03:08):
police station just a block away. Minutes later, the bank
was surrounded. The in and out heist the gang had
planned was no longer possible, so they began to improvise.
Marshall's gang entered the alley, pushing eight hostages ahead of
them as human shields. They thought that the police wouldn't
shoot if there were civilians in the way. However, they

(03:28):
thought wrong. A firefight quickly broke out, wounding police, robbers,
and hostages alike. But amidst the melee, the four thieves
were able to get into their getaway sleigh i mean
car and go along with two fourth grade girls as hostages.
It quickly became obvious, though that they had a problem.
Whether a bullet had made a leak in the gas
tank or the robbers simply forgot to fill up, the

(03:49):
issue was clear. They were almost out of gas. There
was no way that they were getting out of Cisco.
At the edge of the town, they tried to steal
a passing car, ordering the driver out at gunpoints, but
by the time they loaded the cash, the hostages and
themselves into the new car, they realized the driver had
run off with the keys in his hand. Facing more gunfire,

(04:11):
they jumped into their original getaway car and drove off,
But in the confusion they left behind Louis, who had
fallen unconscious from his wounds, as well as the bag
of cash. It seems that after all this trouble to
rob a bank, they would have nothing to show for it.
The three remaining robbers made it about two miles out
of town before they abandoned their car with the hostages inside.

(04:33):
The ensuing manhunt lasted another seven days, with nearly one
hundred men on their trail desperate for their cut of
the bounty. Marshall was caught on December twenty sixth, and
Henry and Robert were captured on December thirtieth. Altogether, twelve
people were wounded and three people, including Louis Davis, were killed.
The money, worth one hundred and seventy two thousand dollars

(04:55):
at the time, would have been the largest bank heist
in Texas history, at least it would have been had
the robbers not left it behind in the chaos. Santa
Suit or not, those bank robbers would spend the rest
of their lives on the Nauty List. You know, you

(05:22):
learn a lot about a city based on the food
they have available to visitors. There's nothing quite like flying
into New York late at nights and hunting down some
cheap street food to keep yourself going. It may never
be the healthiest option, but it's always a relief to
weary travelers. The wide availability of simple prepared foods is
an essential part of a big city today. But how
far back into history does that go. It's perhaps not

(05:44):
surprising to remember that people had not always been quite
so traveled and food not quite so industrialized. And the
farther back in time you go, the more interesting these
differences become cities were smaller, Preserving food for long periods
was always a challenge, and in medieval times it was
not always a given that a house would have a
kitchen of its own, which brings us to one of

(06:06):
the epicenters of the medieval world. Jerusalem, the central city
of the Holy Land, is easily the most contested location
of the era. During the Crusades, it changed hands multiple times,
first when Christian crusaders conquered the city in ten ninety nine,
then when Solidin took it back, and back and forth
for much of the High Middle Ages. Now, despite weathering

(06:27):
regular violence, sieges, and religious conflict, the city still had
a function like a city. As the capital of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. Ordinary people still came and went, people
with no intention to participate in a crusade. It was
a hub of travel for individuals of many different faiths,
and for that reason, the rulers of the city had
many warring interests to contend with, which is why in

(06:49):
the eleven forties the city was in the midst of
a quiet political struggle between folk of Anjou and his wife,
the heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Melissene. The late
King's wins will determined that she should rule, but Fulk
did not agree. He made many attempts to undermine his
wife's authority, resulting in a tenuous arrangement where they would
be co rulers of the city as king and queen.

(07:12):
But all of this came to an end. In eleven
forty three, Fulk and Melison were riding in the countryside
when the King of Jerusalem spotted a hare. Seized by
a hunter's instinct, he charged after it. His horse stumbled
and fell, whereupon Fulk received a grievous head injury. He
would die of it some days later, and with this
Melisan took the throne for herself, ruling the Kingdom of

(07:34):
Jerusalem alongside her young son, Baldwin Third. She would be
the first woman to hold public office in this kingdom,
although her reign would eventually end due to infighting with
her increasingly headstrong son. But this is where we get
back to food. You see, Melison did not spend all
of her reign grappling for power with her immediate family members.
She also seemingly had an interest in improving Jerusalem for

(07:58):
its citizens. At her direction, in three parallel streets would
be established to become a sort of open market for
the city, where travelers and citizens alike could go in
order to purchase goods. And this so called triple market
consisted of three streets, the Streets of Herbs, the Covered Street,
and the Street of Bad Cooking. And this third street

(08:18):
would perhaps become the most infamous of them all. It's
there that locals would prepare vast quantities of low quality
food to be sold cheaply. The meat was bad, almost
always rancid, but caked in enough spices that you'd hardly
be able to tell. And if you're a crusader or
a pilgrim who had just traveled thousands of leagues in
order to come here, you likely wouldn't be complaining. But

(08:42):
don't worry. Not all of the food was of poor quality.
There were fresh fruits available not far from the Street
of Bad Cooking, as well as great local bread. It
seems that Melisson's Triple Market was something of a city
in miniature. In it, you could see people from all
over the world brought into a very small location, all
seeking a bite to eat. And thus, thanks to her,

(09:02):
the violence, turmoil, and upheaval of the Crusades gave way
to a business practice that wouldn't have a name until
the modern times, fast food. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show was created by

(09:27):
me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.